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Footprints place humans in North America thousands of years before previously known

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Footprints Place Humans In North America Thousands Of Years Before Previously Known
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadella...sly-known/

EXCERPT: The footprints, which were confirmed in 2016 to be made by people, are some of the earliest evidence of human life on the continent, according to the paper, which was published in the journal Science. Researchers determined the age of the footprints, which were found in a dried-up lake, by carbon dating plant seeds discovered below and above them. The footprints suggest that humans could have arrived in North America before the last ice age, up to 30,000 years ago, Matthew Bennett, lead author of the study and a professor of environmental and geographic sciences at Bournemouth University in the U.K., told NBC News. (MORE - details)
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Human footprints thought to be oldest in North America discovered
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021...th-america

INTRO: New scientific research conducted by archaeologists have uncovered what they believe are the oldest known human footprints in North America. Research done at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico discovered the ancient footprints, with researchers estimating that the tracks were between 21,000 to 23,000 years old, reported Science.

The prints were buried in layers of soil in the national park with scientists from the US Geological Survey analyzing seeds embedded in the tracks to calculate the age of the fossils. Researchers also determined that the dozen footprints found belonged to a variety of people, mostly children and teenagers.

Previously, scientists had widely assumed that the earliest appearance of humans in the Americas was 11,000 to 13,000 years ago because of stone spears found throughout North America and associated with what is known as the Clovis culture. “The evidence is very convincing and extremely exciting,” says Tom Higham, an archaeological scientist and radiocarbon-dating expert at the University of Vienna to Nature. “I am convinced that these footprints genuinely are of the age claimed.”

The new research was conducted by experts from White Sands National Park, the National Park Service, US Geological Survey, Bournemouth University, University of Arizona and Cornell University. “The paper makes a very compelling case that these footprints are not only human, but they’re older than 20,000 years,” said Spencer Lucas, a palaeontologist at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque to Nature. “That’s a game-changer." (MORE)
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Fossil footprints reveal human occupation in North America during Last Glacial Maximum
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/928957

RELEASE: Newly discovered fossil human footprints embedded in an ancient lakebed show that humans inhabited North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), occupying the region of what is now White Sands National Park in New Mexico, United States, between 23 and 21 thousand years ago.

Not only do the findings provide definitive evidence on the early antiquity of the colonization of the New World, they also indicate that humans were present in southern North America before the glacial advances of the LGM prevented human migration from Asia.

Despite nearly a century of research, the details concerning the migration of the first humans into the Americas and their impact on the Pleistocene landscape remain poorly understood, and the earliest archaeological evidence for the settlement of the region is often highly controversial. Current estimates for the timing of these first occupants range from ~13,000 years ago to more than 20,000 years ago.

However, in most cases, the timeline of human expansion into North America is largely constrained by the viability of the currently recognized migration routes from Asia – an inland ice-free corridor through western Canada and/or a Pacific coastal route – which would have likely been closed or difficult to traverse during the LGM. Matthew Bennett and colleagues report the discovery of a sequence of in situ human footprints on surfaces dating to between ~23,000 and 21,000 years ago and reveal nearly 2,000 years of human occupation in North America during the height of the LGM.

Unlike cultural artifacts or other evidence of human activity, which can have uncertain provenance, footprints have a primary depositional context, fixed on the imprinted surface, and represent a discrete moment in time. According to Bennett et al., further analyses of the tracks suggest that most were made by teenagers and children; larger adult footprints are much less frequent.


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